If you are in the market for an AR-15 of some sort, options are numerous, to put it mildly. I have a bunch of them and most I have built myself from pieces. For quite a few years, I would build something, play with it, note what I'd like to change, sell it, and build a new one. Lather, rinse, repeat.
For a little while now, my line-up of different ARs has not really been changing very much, which probably means that I have gotten to the point where I actually like the builds that I have and they range from an ultra-light to folding to DMR-type ARs in 5.56x45/223Rem. Then there are a couple of 300Blackout AR-pistols, one 6.5Grendel AR that has been with me the longest of all the ARs I have on hand, one 458SOCOM, one 6ARC I built recently and a weird AR/AK hybrid (KS-47) that shoots 7.62x39 and takes AK magazines.
A friend of mine approached me recently with a somewhat differently phrased question than I have heard before. It was something along these lines: "you lost all of your guns in a massive fire/tragic boating accident/pick a disaster of your choice. You have nothing left. Knowing what you know now, where do you start rebuilding your collection? What AR do you buy first?"
I gave him a lengthy treatise on what I would do, but as far as ARs go, I would just recreate a couple that I already have since I like them, most notably, the one I talked about in this post:
https://darklordofoptics.locals.com/post/1252977/guns-of-the-dark-lord-part-3-ar-15

He looked at that and said: this looks to be expensive and a lot of work. I tried to make a feeble argument that once all the pieces are in, I can put this together in less than an hour. He made a compelling argument that it does not quite work this way for sane people who have not spent last few decades obsessively tinkering with guns.

He was specifically trying to get me to identify an AR or two that I would buy as a complete gun. I brought up the Honey Badger. He looked at the pricetag and laughed in my face. Now, I happen to think it is worth the money, but it is certainly not a budget option.

As an aside, if I did not have budget limitations, the first ARI would buy if I lost all of my guns, would be Q's 300Blackout Honey Badger pistol with Tash Panda Suppressor, Steiner CQT sight (https://bit.ly/38EgP0h) and PA's tiny micro magnifier (https://bit.ly/3DnfGFR). That's around $14k, so I totally see why that is unlikely to be a popular option.

Since the conversation wasn't going anywhere, we pretty much started haggling on the boundary conditions. He wanted to limit it to a few hundred dollars and you can get a decent enough AR for under $1k, but there will be some compromises made that I would rather avoid.

We decided to take a step up from the low end stuff, but significantly moderate my snobbish tendencies at the same time.

Once you take that one step up, you end with a plethora of increasingly competent choices.

Before I get to those choices, I will still mention, that I really STRONGLY prefer to build the lower part myself with the trigger, grip and stock I prefer. Then again, I am kinda particular in this regard.

With that out of the way, in terms of best bang for the buck, your best choice is probably one of the rifles from Palmetto's PSA Custom line. PSA has really stepped up in terms of quality in recent years. There is a bunch of good options there and I would go for something like this 16" barrel rifle: https://bit.ly/39xLzAV. It comes with a 223Wylde chamber and upgraded trigger. They have a bunch of different color options, so there is a lot to choose from. At $1100, I do not think I could do better price-wise building one if choosing similar quality components.

Historically, in this category, I would just recommend something from BCM like the RECCE-16 (https://bit.ly/3F4Sihh). It is on the upper end of the price range I would prefer to stay in given the boundary conditions ($1700), but BCM does good work. My one beef with it is that it has a 5.56 NATO chamber, while I generally prefer 223 Wylde or something along those lines. The trigger is essentially a cleaned up Mil-spec trigger, but it is serviceable.

As another side note, Matt at Everyday marksman has a couple of really detailed articles on choosing general purpose ARs. I always thought it was odd how he can use such sound thinking to come up with completely incorrect conclusions... (I am sure he would read this anyway, but I figured I should tag him just in case @TheMarksman ). Interestingly, the exact BCM rifle I talk about above is also on his list. That may be the first time he and I agree on an AR configurations.

That brings us back to what I would go with for similar money, which is one of the FoldAR offerings. I do not recall if I talked about FoldAR in any detail in the past, but if I havn't I should.

I have a thing for takedown ARs and theirs is the best one I am aware of. I have their Gen1 folding upper from the very first batch they manufactured years ago (naturally I put it on a lower I built myself, but I already covered that), and they have made several meaningful improvements since then. It is available with three chambers: 223Wylde, 300Blackout and 6.5Grendel. For a general purpose AR, 223Wylde is the way to go (https://bit.ly/3s4oPP5), but if you want to hunt with it, 6.5Grendel should be at the top of your list). They recently started using an adjustable bolt carrier from Bootleg (I have been switching all of my builds to it as well), so that if you choose to get a suppressor at a later point, you can adapt the gas system to it. The trigger is ALG's cleaned up Mil-Spec trigger, i.e. more or less the same thing as what BCM uses.
The barrel is nitrided vs BCM's phosphated barrel with chrome-lined bore. Both are good options, although I tend to lean toward nitrided barrels more often than not. Chrome-lined barrels are harder to make accurate, but BCM does pretty well with them.
Then, of course, there is a trick to it: the bloody thing folds in half. Then, it unfolds and returns to zero. Mine has been returning to zero for a few years now. They rethought the interface between the barrel and the upper receiver and it seems to re-engage very consistently.
It adds around six ounces to the weight of the rifle if memory serves me right, but it still clocks in barely above six pounds as equipped.
Mine is set up with a fixed length ultralight stock, so it is bit lighter than that.
When folded, the rifle neatly fits into a 22" long Pelican Air 1525 case, which is how I store it. FoldAR ships all of their guns with a backpack. This is a very easy gun to transport discreetly.
At the moment, I have PA's 3x Microprism (https://bit.ly/3KuU7oL) on it with XS' XTI DWT sights (https://bit.ly/3y4J1nO). It is a very lightweight sighting combination for not a lot of money. The added benefit is that it is of comparatively low profile, so it does not catch on things all that much. That handguard has M-lok slots, so adding accessories is pretty straightforward. I've got a Streamlight flashlight attached that I added at some point for a night class and kept it there.
Is it worth the premium over the much less expensive PSA? To me it is.